Core Smore: Recommendations for Summer Reading

Teach Like a Pirate is such a great read and it is all about teaching with passion. Hello, kindergarten teachers have been doing this forever. We could write this book. It is about student engagement, letting loose, wearing costumes, and bringing your personal passions into the classroom. Yup we have no problem wearing costumes, being drama queens, and doing the unpredictable. Read it and just enjoy validation of all that you hold dear to your heart as a primary teacher. I am loving it! The others are in my stack and I will report on them later. Promise.

Here are the books that I have been reading since early June. If you are really trying to wrap your head around the core standards I recommend the first book for a quick and easy reference that you can keep on your school desk at all times. It charts the standards in reasonable chunks and shows you what it looks like in kindergarten, first and second grade. It is very teacher friendly and I am a huge fan of easy! This is a winner: Common Core Standards.
Text Complexity is a lot more academic but if you are a "smartie pants" and need to understand this crucial topic to be a CC expert buy it. You will hear this term constantly so you might want to understand what all the hoopla is about. I swear it is an easy and informative book that is clear as mud... just kidding!
The Common Core: I have not even opened the cover but many people are suggesting this one so I am on the bandwagon cause I am afraid of missing the common core train. It deals with the reading strategies for teaching Common Core and I say "bring it on..." Do we ever do anything for more than a few years? Just sayin'
Now here is what I really need to know. What mindless trash can I read to give myself a brain break? I better bust out some beach books or I will never consider this a vacation!
What are you reading that I should be reading too? My list is growing...